1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having a file transfer function and in particular relates to a facsimile apparatus having a file transfer function which transmits and/or receives file data utilizing any of a plurality of standardized file transfer modes.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication Nos. Hei. 2-134974 and Hei. 3-49463, for example, disclose transfer of file data in place of image information utilizing procedure of a facsimile apparatus for transferring image information.
However, since the conventional arts described above establish various settings utilizing a unique (non-standard) mode in communication protocols, there has been a problem that file transfer cannot be performed between machines supplied by different manufacturers.
A plurality of file transfer modes have been standardized by items regarding file transfer which were added to CCITT (presently, ITU-T) Recommendation T.30 in Feb. 1992, whereby file transfer between the machines of different manufacturers is made to be possible by utilizing the standardized transfer modes.
Each of the standardized transfer modes is defined as follows:
1) Basic Transfer Mode (hereinafter, BTM) provides means to exchange files of plural kinds (binary files, wordprocessor native format documents, bitmaps, etc.) without file descriptions. PA1 2) Document Transfer Mode (hereinafter, DTM) provides means to exchange files of plural kinds containing file descriptions read by the user. PA1 3) Binary File Transfer (hereinafter, BFT) provides means to exchange files of plural kinds containing file descriptions automatically processed at the receiving side.
The file description is structured information regarding the file, which is transmitted ahead of the file itself and concatenated with it.
As described above, the file description is unnecessary for file transfer performed in the BTM, but necessary for file transfer performed in the DTM or BFT mode.
Moreover, structure of the file description of the DTM is greatly different from that of the BFT mode. Therefore, though the transmitting side desires to carry out file transfer in the DTM, file transfer cannot be achieved in the case where the receiving side facsimile apparatus does not have the DTM.
Since there are various differences in the file transfer modes, in the case where the transmitter hopes to transfer a document in the DTM and the receiving side facsimile, apparatus does not have the DTM, file transfer cannot be carried out.